February 14, 1890

“Front Page” American Sentinel 5, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

The Detroit (Mich.) Free Press, makes the following good point against those preachers who propose to have Monday morning’s paper printed Saturday night, before midnight:-AMS February 14, 1890, page 49.1

“There is a minister in Minnesota who thinks a Monday paper can just as well be prepared Saturday night. His congregation should keep a sharp lookout on him. A man with a notion of that kind is quite capable of ringing in a 10-year-old sermon on his people for a fresh one.”AMS February 14, 1890, page 49.2

Miss Willard finds that the non-partisan Woman’s Christian Temperance Union movement is proving to be of more importance than she suspected. It seemed to be a very light thing at the time of the National Convention in November last, but now there seems to be some alarm; for she has found it necessary to issue a national address, pleading for the old organization “to be kept up,” and saying that “local branches must be maintained so long as a single white ribboner is left.” We wish success to the non-partisan movement, and hope that that movement may bring the temperance work back to its original intent, and to sound principles.AMS February 14, 1890, page 49.3

“For Policy’s Sake” American Sentinel 5, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

The Freethinkers profess to be decidedly opposed to Sunday laws everywhere. Yet the Truth Seeker reports from “a friend” in the Washington Legislature, the following words:-AMS February 14, 1890, page 53.1

A majority of both houses are really Freethinkers but many of them are also politicians, and would make no break that would hurt their politics; but yet I am in hopes, and encouraged to think that I can get through a Sunday law that will be quite liberal. I am convinced that the majority of the members would prefer none, but for policy’s sake, we will have to have something.AMS February 14, 1890, page 53.2

The politician takes precedence of the free thinker there. The Freethinkers are much like many other folk with whom they find so much fault. The Truth Seeker very properly remarks, that “comment on that state of things is almost superfluous.” The American Secular Union needs to hurry along with its one thousand-dollar prize manual of “the purest principles of morality.” It is much needed in the Washington Legislature right now.AMS February 14, 1890, page 53.3

“Back Page” American Sentinel 5, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

The Secretary of the Philadelphia Sunday-law Association, Rev. T. A. Fernley, reports that there are in that city “283 Personal Liberty Leagues, representing 35,000 men, who will next autumn show their hand in politics” in opposition to Sunday laws. Can the Church carry on a political contest with such an element as that and keep herself pure? Merely to contemplate such a prospect ought to convince the Church instantly and once for all that such is not the field where she is to put forth her efforts.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.1

We have full verbatim reports of all the speeches made in the Washington City Sunday Law Convention. As soon as we can get them turned from short-hand into type-written copy, we hope to print them with comments, in the SENTINEL, if possible. The speeches are so thoroughly representative of the movement we want all our readers to have them. They may, however, prove to be too long to print in the SENTINEL, with the necessary comments. If that should be the case we hope to be able to issue them as a number of the Sentinel Library.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.2

One of the chiefest sophistries of the Sunday-law advocates is couched in the would-be innocent inquiry, “If Congress has the right to say that eight hours shall be a day’s work, why has it not the right also to say that six days shall be a week’s work?” To this there are several answers:-AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.3

1. In making eight hours a day’s work, Congress does not attempt to define what particular hours shall compose the day, as it is asked to do in the enactment of a Sunday law.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.4

2. Congress does not declare that if anybody works more than eight hours for a day he shall be fined one hundred or a thousand dollars, as it is asked to do in the enactment of a Sunday law.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.5

3. These men have never asked, nor has it ever been proposed by anybody, that Congress shall say that six days shall be a week’s work.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.6

Let Congress, in order to make eight a day’s work, undertake to enact a law declaring that no person or corporation shall perform, or authorize to be performed, any secular work, labor, or business, except works of necessity or mercy; nor shall any person engage in any play, game, or amusement or recreation; nor shall any mails or mail matter be handled or transported in time of peace; nor shall there be any military or naval drills, musters or parades, except assemblies for the due and orderly observance of religious worship; before eight o’clock A. M.; between twelve o’clock M. and one o’clock P.M.; or after five o’clock P.M.; of any day-let Congress attempt to enact such a law as that, and we think the people could readily see the difference whether the preachers would or not.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.7

It will be of interest to those who have supposed from the representations of Mr. Crafts and his co-workers that the working men were everywhere clamoring for a national Sunday law to know that instead of shouting themselves hoarse for the Blair Sunday bill, the Trades Union of Syracuse, New York, at a meeting held in that city, on the 28th ult., adopted resolutions against that measure.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.8

We derive our information from the Syracuse Evening Herald, of January 29, which also states that the City Hall had been named as the place for a mass meeting in opposition to Sunday and other religious legislation, but it has been decided that a larger auditorium must be procured. The American Sabbath Union should at once send some one to Syracuse to look after their fences and instruct the laboring men more perfectly in the way of National Reform. They are evidently laboring under the impression that they can rest when tired without a law of Congress to tell them when to rest and how they shall rest.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.9

At Ottowa, Canada, a great stir has been created among the ones who want to be religious for others as well as themselves, because of the playing of the game of “hockey” within the grounds of the Governor-General. This is a game of ball, played with a club having a curved end. One of the prominent ones of the opposition put their case in the following statement:-AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.10

As a member of the Christian religion in this city, I must enter my protest against the practice lately introduced of hockey at Rideau Hall on Sunday. The fact that young men are asked seems so like a command that it requires some fortitude to refuse, and when clergymen’s sons and bald-headed old men are both seen there desecrating the Lord’s day the public ought to take steps towards discountenancing such proceedings.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.11

The other side, by one of the Governor-General’s staff, state their side of the case thus:-AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.12

I do not understand why the people of Canada should interfere in what is purely a private matter. If Lord Stanley sees no harm in hockey playing on Sunday I cannot see that Canadians have any right to say what day shall be set apart for recreation at the Government House. His Excellency has English precedent that the people at home do not regard a game of hockey on Sunday as so very criminal.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.13

We should say to the opposition there, if it requires more fortitude than your young men have to refuse to play ball on Sunday the best thing you can do is to cultivate in them sufficient fortitude to enable them to refuse.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.14

The delegates to the World’s Sunday School Convention, held in London last summer, addressed a communication to all the crowned heads of Europe, in which they “earnestly petitioned their majesties, by the use of their personal influence and constitutional power, to ‘secure for the day of weekly rest the place given it in that decalogue which all Christian lands recognize, and for the good of the people, and for the glory of God, promote its recognition as a delight, holy unto the Lord.’” The Czar of Russia has his constitutional machinery in quite good working order for complying with the petition. But how will it work with the Sultan of Turkey? Is he considered a crowned head or did they leave him out?AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.15

January 27, the directors of the Young Men’s Christian Association of Milwaukee, Wis., gave formal notice to the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, of that place, that the Union could no longer have the use of the Association building. The reason is that “having allied themselves with the Prohibition party,” the women must be treated as other political organizations are and therefore must be excluded from occupying the rooms of the Association. We think that a very proper action on the part of the Young Men’s Christian Association. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union has ceased to be anything but a political club, and its work anything less than a continuous political campaign. We hope that by some means the Union may be enabled to discover this, and turn once more to its proper, legitimate, and chartered object-the promotion of Christian temperance, and that by Christian methods. The management of the Young Men’s Christian Association, which through all the ups and downs of the day has kept it straight on its Christian course clear of all entanglements, is worthy of the highest admiration on the part of everybody, as it has it on the part of the AMERICAN SENTINEL.AMS February 14, 1890, page 56.16